1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a labeling system, and more particularly, to a labeling system which allows large amounts of data to be stored on labels which are physically small, tolerant of physical damage, tamper resistant, and whose information can be easily accessed and updated.
2. Related Art
Pre-printed labels made up of human readable alpha-numerical characters or machine readable patterns are well known. Labels printed or scribed directly on an object to be identified are also well known. For many classes of objects, including various kinds of machinery, vehicles, electronic equipment, shipping/storage containers and electronic data storage elements (i.e., magnetic tapes, optical tapes, magnetic disks, optical disks, etc.), variable alpha-numerical sequences such as serial or identification numbers are used to distinguish identical or similar objects. Machine-readable variable patterns such as bar codes are used for the same purpose.
For objects such as a shipping/storage container or an electronic data storage element, the contents of the container or data storage element is changeable. Thus, it is desirable to keep a separate record of the contents such objects. Such records are frequently maintained in a computer system. Whenever specific information about an object is required, manual or automated apparatus "read" the object's identification label and feed this information to the computer system. The computer system then matches a stored data record with the object to identify the contents of the object.
The StorageTek Model 4410 Automated Cartridge System (ACS), available from Storage Technology Corporation, Louisville, Colo., uses such a process. The ACS includes automated apparatus to read identification labels on tape cartridges. The identification labels include a bar coded identification number. A look-up table in a host computer provides a cross-reference between the identification number and information pertaining to the contents of the tape cartridge.
When a tape cartridge is made accessible to more than one computer by the ACS, it is difficult to maintain a single look-up table on one computer. This is further complicated by manual handling of cartridges outside of the ACS environment. It is desirable to keep a summary of the contents of data cartridges attached directly to the cartridge to alleviate these problems.
Similarly, it is desirable to keep a summary of the contents of any object with variable contents attached directly to the object. This will allow the identification information to be read and updated at any stage of handling and use. In the case of data cartridges, this has been done in the past by writing a summary in digital form on the medium in the cartridge. The information in this summary is sometimes referred to as meta-data. However, in order to access this summary, the tape cartridge must be loaded into a tape drive and the tape searched for the summary data. This is a time consuming process, especially when a large number of cartridges are being handled, as in the Storage Technology Corporation ACS.
What is needed is a mechanism for maintaining a summary of the contents of an objects such as a tape cartridge together with the object in a format which is directly machine readable and writable.